Hoping for high winds on Owatonna

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — Southern Steele County residents are being offered the chance to get paid for being agreeable.

The Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA) is offering $500 to landowners in the area between County Road 45 and Highway 218 near Bixby simply to join the process of moving forward on bringing wind energy to the county.

MMPA hopes to build Oak Glen Wind Farm, an installation of about 30 wind turbines. The initial offering of $500 would allow MMPA to study the project on and around landowner’s property.

“We’re not going to be stomping all over their land,” said Derick Dahlen, president of Avant Energy Services which has partnered on this project with MMPA.

MMPA would narrow the 7,000 project area down to about 2,500 acres, which calls for one tower per 80-acre tract.

Each turbine would have a base of 16- 20 feet across with 126-foot blades whipping through the air. However, MMPA said the turbines are designed to be very quiet.

“We’ll also satisfy Minnesota noise standards and those require a very low sound level, especially at night,” said Avant Vice President Leo Raudy.

The project capacity would equal out to 44 megawatts, generating enough electricity to power 14,000 homes.

MMPA is known in this area for the work it accomplished as the owner and operator of Faribault Energy Park.

If landowners agree to the project and to have a wind turbine built on their land, they will be compensated $5,400 per turbine per year for the first 10 years of operation. After 10 years, the compensation goes up to $6,300 per year. If a turbine is not built on their

land, but owners have agreed to the project, they may be compensated $20 per acre per year.

“We think that’s a good deal, being a neighbor of a wind farm and still getting compensated for it,” said Oak Glen Project Manager Molly Andvik.

The land was chosen because of its topography but also its proximity to transmission lines which will allow the power generated by the turbines to be transferred. Some may be used in other areas of the state while some power may be used here in Steele County.

“Once that electricity from the wind farm enters the grid, that doesn’t mean it’s automatically transferred away,” said Bob Rumpza, president of Rumpza Consulting.

However, while studying the project’s land, MMPA is in the midst of waiting for approval of using the transmission grids, which Dahlen said MMPA and Avant are expecting soon.

Raudy said even after the project area is studied and exact locations for the turbines are pinpointed, there are many steps of the process but if everything goes smoothly, construction of the turbines may be completed by 2009 or in 2010 at the latest, and energy production can begin immediately.

Wendy Reuer can be reached at 444-1565.

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